I am a newbie in the networking world and a little help would be appreciated in correctly configuring two NICs. I have searched your forum for multiple network card configurations, but none of them worked.

We have one PC (Win XP SP 2) - with network cards. One (native) uses the same network with other computers on the same floor and for Internet, and the other one is for using a special software upstairs on a different network. So two independent networks

Here is where the problem arises. Both of the NICs have static IPs.
Native NIC for flr 1
192.1.168.195
255.255.255.0
192.1.168.1

However, Internet stops working after one or two days. I constantly have to change the IP to 192.1.168.196 so on. And even that one expires in the next day. Any IP I put lasts for a day only.

What could be the cause? Automatic DNS and IP is not solving the issue.
Thanks!

PS. Forgot to mention. There is another computer on flr 1 with Win 7 that houses 2 NICs. But it never has the same problem.... I am getting a white hair over this already...

When the computer loses Internet connectivity, please do the following so that we can assist in troubleshooting - open up a command prompt and type 'route print' (without quotes). Copy and paste all of the information so that we can analyze.

Here is what I would recommend:
1. Download/install the latest updates/drivers on your network cards
2. Ensure that Windows 7 is fully patched with the latest patches
3. Set the 2nd NIC to have a metric of 25 instead of 20 and make it a persistent route. From an elevated command prompt, do the following:

Capi may also be correct in that another computer is stealing your IP address.

In regards to your route, please format it as such (the destination needs to be 192.168.106.0 and not the actual IP address). There is a slight possibility that since both metrics are 20, that the Internet is reverting to the 192.168.106.x IP. Can you confirm that the 192.168.106.x subnet does not have access to the Internet? If it does, the route add issue may not help.

When it has an ip conflict Win XP usually displays a bubble message at the bottom.
Since the route -p add proved problematic, I changed it through TCP/Confgi advanced options and put the metric to 25 for the second NIC (192.168.106.1). I am sure it is not using the second NIC to connect to the Internet.

How do I reserve an IP through DNS so that other computers do not steal the ip (if that's the case)?